


Everything I Have

by inadistantworld



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/M, Slow Burn, There's still magic though, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 11:38:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11147628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inadistantworld/pseuds/inadistantworld
Summary: Undead roam the world and magic has sprouted in the world. A band of adventurers happens upon a small settlement where they meet a young man with stark white hair and a big gun. They're not looking to save the world, but if it comes up along the way they might consider it.It's going to be a hard road, but at least they have each other (and by each other I'm talking about Vex and the copious amounts of money she can amount even years after the zombie apocalypse has taken hold).The good news is that even with zombies all over, pining, romance, and fumbling through relationships are still alive and well.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'd just like to say that you're all very lucky I didn't title this either "Zom Machina" or "Vox Zombina". Also I was going to write "pining, romance (or zomance if you will), and fumbling through relationships..." in the summary. Honestly there are a lot of zombie puns I didn't put in here and I hope you're grateful you don't have to suffer through them.  
> Anyways, still pretty new to the fandom. I'm catching up (currently on episode 54) and I just really enjoy Percy and Vex so I thought I'd just do a fun little AU I haven't seen in this fandom before I guess. I liked the idea of the two almost shooting each other and deciding against it so it was zombies or rival crime organizations and I chose zombies.  
> (Though I really really wanted to do one about pirates and I have the first full chapter of it done too. Until I realized that 7 people can't man a pirate ship and I know nothing about pirates.)  
> No Tibs, I wasn't a huge fan of him and he's not around in the show anymore so I just didn't put him in.  
> Anyways, I'm just rambling now so that I can put off you guys reading this because it quite honestly might be (probably) garbage.  
> Hope you guys at least find it kind of fun I guess  
> Kay also this is going to be a bunch of chapters but I still have no idea how to make it show up as a 1/? instead of 1/1 )is it obvious I have no idea what I'm doing??) so like, if you do get to the end and you're like what the fuck that's a shitty end, I don't want that to be the end.  
> Okay, now you can do the reading thing if you want

Blue feathers in her hair, where could someone even find feathers like that now in days?

Her gaze was unwavering, staring him down, and the arrow aimed directly at him. In all fairness the crosshairs of his scope were on her.

Neither moved for a long time. Percy was on guard and he’d caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, almost missed her entirely. She had dropped from a tree and darted forward, almost hidden in the lengthening shadows from the setting sun but not quite. She was faster than one of _them,_ but in many ways that was worse. It took no time for him to get his gun ready and trained on her, and yet somehow she was faster notching her bow.

An uncomfortably long time passed and she never once turned her gaze. Technically she wasn’t a threat, not yet, especially alone like this. He weighed the pros and cons for another minute. It was frustrating how calm she was, that was supposed to be his thing. Everyone else was supposed to be flustered right now and she only exuded confidence. She was daring him to pull the trigger, find out what happens.

He lowered Bad News and nodded her way. She lowered the bow and winked back at him, turning back the way she came and rushing off. As she vanished another figure came into view, seemingly from the shadows, and stared up at him. Strikingly similar to the woman, he stared directly at Percy with an emotionless face. He raised a hand, took two steps away, and melted into the darkness again.

Impressive considering how well he knew the darkness.

 

It was years ago now when it all started. Zombies. The undead. Grey, rotting, shambling forms that had a never ending hunger. A common story in the old days apparently, which was part of the problem. Nobody believed it, and those that did couldn’t do much by the time they found out. It took time, but eventually nations all over the world fell. The official government fell, all of them did, but new things took their place.

Settlements of people bonded together, even cities reclaimed and protected now. They were few and far between but they were there. A few groups lived on their own, always in bands, travelers, merchants, mercenaries, and such. They were unusual though, and rarely lived long lives.

But the world didn’t stop at changing with zombies, as if it wasn’t enough. Magic sprouted in the world. Some people said that whatever brought the dead back brought magic from ancient times as well, others said that the zombies just pushed humanity into accessing new limits. A lot of people just thought the world was so fucked up that why wouldn’t magic get thrown into the mix too.

There were rumors that other things were coming back to the world too, not just zombies, but they were distant stories told by merchants who told scary stories to kids. Though there were always going to be adventurers who went looking for trouble like that.

 

“Why didn’t you just lower the bow?” Keyleth was all sorts of worked up still. She’d been all but begging through the magic earring in Vex’s ear to drop it, to run off. But Vex knew she couldn’t turn her back on him, she may not have been able to see his eyes, but she knew. That was a man who wouldn’t hesitate. She said that and Keyleth had rolled her eyes, saying that’s exactly why she was alive, because he had in fact hesitated. Vex knew differently though, she knew he’d been sizing her up.

“Never do that again,” her twin growled. Always so protective.

“No promises. What do you think, Vax? Should it be our next stop?” Vex was fletching arrows with dark feathers she had found earlier.

“Nobody we’ve talked to has mentioned that place, we ran into it on accident. I don’t think we should just ignore what we’re supposed to be doing. We can go back there later, but we have a mission right now,” Vax said cautiously.

“I agree, the last time we got sidetracked we kind of didn’t finish the job for a month,” Keyleth added.

“I don’t know, I mean we’re already here and all,” Grog shrugged and inspected the nails in his club some more. He also had a shotgun but he admitted to being a traditionalist in his mayhem.

“Yeah, c’mon, we’re already here. What do you think Pike?” She turned to the short blonde beside Grog.

Pike opened her mouth and closed it, then opened again as she looked around at everyone, “I mean, it would be on the way. Just a real quick in and out.”

She had them now, Pike was the sensible one, they’d agree with her. “I have a really good feeling about this, let’s just go. Let’s just check it out.”

“Standing in a very deadly stalemate for five minutes is a good feeling?” Scanlan’s voice was high and sharp, he laughed uncomfortably.

“Yes!” Vex shot back, but her doubt was clear in voice. She couldn’t explain it, and when you said it like that nothing sounded good. “Look, I’m telling you, we should just stop by. They might have something worthwhile.”

“It sounds like you want to rob them blind,” Keyleth sounded so wary still. Vex knew she still wondered about her and Vax’s motives sometimes, Vex knew that their past still showed in them.

“Not rob, I’ll pay. Maybe not what they’re asking for, but that’s not a bad thing. I’m just saying I really think we need to go. Maybe that Jeremy guy is there instead, maybe we got false information about him.”

“Look, we’re already here, let’s just go. She won’t drop it until we do, let’s just get it over with. In the morning though. If you come back when it’s dark I don’t think he’ll drop the gun.” Her brother knew how it worked, she wondered why he fought it anymore. She said she had a feeling and eventually she wore them down enough to listen to it. She wasn’t one to give up until she got what she wanted, and there was something in that settlement she wanted. She just didn’t know what it was yet. But she was going to find it.

 

Percy didn’t like to lose. He never lost. Not anymore. When he was back home with his brothers and sisters, sure he lost. It’s hard to win with that many of them. But after…everything he didn’t lose anymore. He refused to lose.

And yet, today he lost. To a woman with blue feathers. Others would have argued. They would have said he won, that he dropped his weapon out of mercy, that he recognized she was not a threat. If not a win, it was at the very least a draw. But Percy knew. That woman won. She got exactly what she wanted from him. And he let her have it.

The rest of his watch went without incident, which only left him more time to think about this frustrating loss. Try as he might, he wasn’t angry. And the frustration was more about how easily he gave up, how all it took was her looking silently at him for him to drop his weapon. And as he went to bed a small smile crept onto his lips. It had been an exciting game at the very least. And if he was to lose, he had a feeling she was a worthy opponent.

The next day Percy wandered the settlement. He helped with the gardening for a few hours. They didn’t take the risk of full farming, that required a lot more people to keep watch and keep everyone safe. A few nearby settlements were able to do such a thing and passed food along for a price. They didn’t always have a lot, but they had enough to get by.

It was late morning when Percy noticed someone running past to the mayor’s place. He rushed over and stood in front of him, “What’s going on? What’s the problem?” Percy’s heart was pounding, had he been found out? Was this town under attack? Was it a raid?

“I don’t know. There’s some people at the gate, they say they’re travelers from Emon, but I can’t let just anyone in. Especially six people who are…heavily armed. A few look like magic users, one has some daggers, fuck one has a board with a bunch of nails and a shotgun. When we asked if anyone was armed he started waving them both around. Another has a fucking bow and arrow like this is fuckin medieval times, another—“

“A bow?” He pushed past the man and ran to the entrance.

Sure enough, there she was. Her hair in a long braid, lips pursed as she smirked and spoke to the other guard, wearing him down Percy was sure. Beside her was a man in black with long hair that he wore loose. Both of the people he saw last night. He looked around at the other four, a short blonde, a bald giant of a man, a short man with dark hair and a gleam in his eye, and a tall woman with long red hair who was laughing awkwardly at something the archer said.

“I didn’t shoot you last night, try and remember that when you’re walking around here. I gave you the benefit of the doubt,” Percy said sternly as he approached, focused on the woman.

She turned at his voice and her smirk widened as she looked him up and down. She recognized the stark white hair from last night, the sniper on the wall. “If I remember it correctly, I was the one who didn’t shoot you when given the perfect opportunity.” The man beside her elbowed her hard and she looked at him angrily and rubbed her side.

“Forgive my sister. We’ll be on our best behavior, we’re just passing through. We were wondering what you had to trade or if we could offer our help somehow.”

Percy smiled for the second time in 24 hours, both times because of this mystery woman. “No, she’s right. I dropped first, she had all the opportunity with none of the risk. I suppose I should be thanking you for sparing me.”

“You really should,” she teased.

He cleared his throat and looked around that the group, “Travelers?”

“We get hired to kill things out there,” the bald man said with a rough laugh.

“Well not exactly. We get hired to do a number of jobs, killing things, finding things, all sorts of…things.” The short man waved his hands as he spoke with a charming smile. “Which is why we came here actually. Do you know a Jeremy?”

Percy shook his head, “No one here goes by that name.”

“Do you have any work for us?” He tried.

“This is a pretty quiet place, we don’t have much to do out there. I mean the mayor should be on her way but I don’t think you’ll have much luck here,” he said. He ignored the part of him that wanted to make up a job for them. It had been a while since anyone new had come to town and these looked like…sketchy but people with good intentions. Sometimes it was more than he could say about himself.

“Well! If that’s that I suppose we should be on our way!” The little man clapped his hands together and turned around. The man with long hair grabbed the back of his collar and held him.

“We’re here anyways, we might as well look around and trade. If you don’t mind that is. My sister had her heart set on coming here after your little show down. Thanks for not shooting her by the way.”

“Percival, who are these guests?” A voice came from behind him. She ran this small place, took him in when he was banging on the gate one night in the rain, terrified for about a hundred reasons with nowhere to go.

He looked over to the group and the brother straightened up, “We’re just travelers ma’am. Looking for safe harbor for a day is all.”

She looked them up and down and huffed, “Well I hope you don’t mind but I’ll have to ask you to leave your weapons with our guards. Can’t have six of you just roaming around armed to the teeth like that, you’ll scare people.”

“Of course,” the red head’s voice was calm and understanding, already handing over a long wooden staff.

The archer laughed nervously, “Oh well come on now, a few of us can keep our things right? I mean, we’re trustworthy enough.”

The mayor looked her up and down, frowned, and said, “I’m sorry but I really must insist.”

She pouted but handed the bow and her quiver over. Percy watched the brother tuck a knife away and pull out a different one to hand over. His dark eyes looked up to see Percy watching and he winked subtly and handed over two daggers. Percy didn’t say anything, he would have done something very similar if he thought he could get away with it.

The huge man looked like he had a tear in his eye when he handed over his weapons and the blonde was consoling him as they walked through the gate to where Percy and the mayor stood.

“Now, do you have names?” She asked.

“I’m Burt Renolds, leader of Vox Machina, and these are my companions,” the short man said. Percy caught a few snickers as he said this but didn’t let on.

“I’m Vex’ahia,” the woman from last night said. Vex’ahia, a lovely name he thought. “This is my brother Vax’ildan. This here is Keyleth, Pike, and Grog. And you would be?”

“Most people just call me the mayor, which is fine. And this young man is—” She gestured to Percy to introduce himself.

“I’m Percival Fredickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III. A pleasure to meet all of you.”

“That’s an old sounding name,” Pike, the blonde, said kindly with a smile.

“It’s a long name,” Vex muttered under her breath.

“It is old. My family was deeply rooted in the traditional ways.”

Grog laughed, “Yeah, mine too. A good whack to the head will take care of almost anything, don’t need all those fancy things to do it.”

Percy blinked in surprise and said slowly, “Yes, well maybe not quite the same. You can call me Percy.”

“Well Percy, it’s nice to meet you. I do hope you’ll keep the gun away now that I’m unarmed.” Vex seemed almost as upset as Grog by the whole not weapons thing.

“I agree, it’s much less fun if you aren’t on the same playing field.” It was the kind of thing he would have said to his siblings during a game, he knew the kind of effect it was meant to have.

“Darling, I don’t need something sharp and pointy to win, it’s not even my preferred method.” She winked at him and his breath hitched at all it implied. Oh she was very good, perhaps not the rival Percy had thought, in fact she may have been out of his league entirely. It was thrilling.

 

Vex grew bored of the town very quickly. Things barely moved here. She missed Emon to be quite honest, the bustling, the haggling, the drinking. Here things slowed almost to a stop. Everyone was working, they all had something to do, but it was quiet, miserable, long work. And it was nothing she was interested in and nothing that paid. Grog helped move some heavy things around, he liked that. Pike healed some minor illnesses, Scanlan sang to the kids and flirted shamelessly with everyone, Keyleth helped with the garden. In the end it was her and Vax looking for something to do. It was always her and Vax, Vex and Vax against the world. She could leave the others behind. She cared about them of course, but if Vax came to her and said they had to leave she wouldn’t give it a second thought. Her brother would always come first.

The two were sitting against a wall outside and the afternoon sun was high overhead. “We waited all day, Vex. There’s nothing here.”

She wanted to fight it, say that there was, but she looked at the sight before her and sighed, “I haven’t been wrong before.”

Vax chuckled, “Vex two weeks ago you said you had a feeling in that cave and we almost died. Do you remember the twenty zombies that heard all that noise and came looking? And then blocked us in? We escaped with the skin of our teeth on that one.”

“Okay, but I wasn’t wrong because we found that necklace we sold.” She held a finger up, remembering very clearly the gold necklace and emerald stone in it. She also remembered the lovely price they got for it.

“Vex, your gut can’t always be right. Sometimes it’s just the bad fish from the night before.”

She smiled despite herself and said, “I’m not sure Scanlan should cook anymore.”

“Vex’ahlia, there’s nothing here for us. The longer we wait the farther away he gets.”

“Just…just a little longer. A little longer and we can leave.” She grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently.

He nodded, “A little longer can’t hurt. Besides, the others look like they’re enjoying themselves.”

“They haven’t had a break in a long time. It’s a nice change,” Vex admitted. She didn’t feel like she was on a break, still looking for anything of interest.

She caught a glimpse of snow white hair on a rooftop. Percy was sitting up there, looking down at the twins curiously. When he noticed she was looking back he smiled and turned his gaze to one of the other newcomers.

“I’m going to talk to him.” Vex nodded to the man on the roof.

“He almost shot you and he didn’t even know you. Don’t make him regret lowering his gun.”

“Oh hush, once he gets to know me he’ll be putty in my hands, just like everyone else.”

“I’m not feeding Trinket if you die.”

She slapped his arm, “Don’t say that! You need to take care of him if I die, it’s my last request. But I’m not going to die.” Vex stood up and walked toward the building Percy was sitting on. It took little effort to climb up it, her hands seeming to instinctively find the perfect handholds. Somewhere deep down she called it fate, it felt like she was being pulled toward him for a reason, and maybe that was why things were going so smoothly.

Her foot slipped and her heart skipped a beat as she almost fell.

Well, smoother than they normally went at least.

“Why are you really here?” Percy asked as she stood on the roof, settled her hands on her hips, and looked around.

“I had a good feeling about this place.”

“Staring down the barrel of a gun and you get a good feeling?” An eyebrow quirked up as he looked at her.

“Watching a handsome boy like you give up gave me a good feeling.”

“I wouldn’t describe it like that,” he said with a small grin.

“Oh I don’t know, I think the hair looks quite nice on you, you’re not bad to look at,” she teased, knowing it wasn’t what he meant.

He laughed and nodded. _Another point for her_ , he thought as he decided not to pursue that, giving up once again, and said, “Fair enough. There’s not much to have a good feeling about here though. They don’t have much work here, no money. Everything they have to trade they need and I doubt you can trade things that they’re desperate for. You don’t look like you’re carrying much food or water.”

She sat beside him. “You keep saying they, doesn’t the same go for you?”

He shrugged, “It complicated.”

“Our group knows complicated pretty well.”

“Keep talking like this and someone will think you’re trying to make me join you.”

“Am I not being obvious enough? I think you should come along.” In the back of her mind she heard Vax’s voice saying ‘what the fuck’ repeatedly.

“And the rest of your friends? Have they agreed?” The glint in his eyes let her know he already knew the answer.

“Well, I mean, we like good help and I think they’ll be on board when they get to know you.”

“You don’t know me either,” he pointed out.

“I can tell you’re like us. You’ve got that look in your eye.”

“What? Does it tell about my broken childhood?” He bat his eyes mockingly.

“No, it says you’re looking to fuck shit up for a moderately virtuous reason and or money.”

He laughed again and nodded, “Yes, yes perhaps that’s true.”

She grinned and looked out over the settlement and said, “You’re fucked up childhood shows in the way you walk.”

He looked her over, sizing her up and said, “You carry yours in the shoulders I think.”

“What do you say? Are you busy right now? We’re going after a big bad guy if you want to come along.” Percy counted that as a point for himself when she ignored his quip. “We travel to all sorts of places. Get in all kinds of trouble,” she tacked on at the end.

His heart clenched, a rhythmic thumping sounded in his ears, images of his brothers and sisters flooding his mind. “Do you take requests on what trouble we seek out?”

“For the people we care about we’ll do just about anything.”

“I suppose I can tag along for a little while at least. As long as you’re sure.”

“I’m very sure. I think you might be the good feeling I had here.”

Percy almost laughed again, there was nothing in him that should have sparked any feeling but fear. And yet…he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little excited.

She held up one slender finger and said, “Just one last thing before we start our lovely journey. If you could perhaps help us with, you know, the price of getting a new member set up into the group and all that. You know,” she laughed uneasily and shook her fist in front of her, “so much money to make friends, am I right?”

It was instinctual what he said, “Whatever I have to give you is yours.”

Her eyebrows shot up and she was silent for a moment, then said, “Be careful what you offer to strange women, Percy, especially ones like me. Because I just might take you for all you’re worth and a little more.”

He had no explanation or reasoning, the closest he came to was that he was on a team now and that meant that he couldn’t hold back without harming himself now. But that wasn’t really all of it. There was something about Vex, he barely knew her and yet he was willing to give everything he had up. It dawned on him that she may be one of the most dangerous people he’d ever met, that she could be a major weakness to him. But he wasn’t sure if he cared, a problem for a later date.

He blue eyes locked on to hers and he said, “Whatever you want from me you can take. I may even give you some things you don’t ask for too. I’m quite good at tinkering and making things, perhaps special arrows or something. Everything I have is yours now, Vex. All you need is to say the word.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy joins the group, they kill something weird, and he gets a pretty intense TSA search.

They stayed the night in the settlement and left in the morning. Percy said his goodbyes, but he had kept his distance from the people there. He’d kept a low profile, not finding anyone who lived there to make him feel like it was particularly worth having a deep relationship with them, but he also felt dangerously close to his old home and found safety in being, for the most part, forgettable. It had not been a very emotional departure.

The rest of the group welcomed Percy with open arms. They trusted easily, Percy thought, he worried it would get them into trouble down the road. His family had trusted too and look how that had turned out. He hoped to rub off on them a little, make them more cautious. He hoped he wasn’t going to be one to make them regret it.

The strangest thing was probably the bear though. He’d been waiting outside and while Percy had been ready to either run back inside or pull out his gun to fight, Vex started apologizing profusely and running up to huge him. Vax followed closely behind and reached up to scratch its ear. Nobody else in the group batted an eye and when they started walking off the bear joined them. It was quite unnerving.

Vax seemed to be the most suspicious of him. To be honest Percy had a hard time reading him, but he was quiet, stayed close to his sister, always watching Percy with guarded eyes. It made his conversations with Vex a little uncomfortable.

“So…I wasn’t going to ask but I’m starting to become a little concerned. The bear?” Percy was eyeing the large brown bear that followed the woman closely.

“Aw, my little buddy Trinket,” she scratched his head and he made what Percy could only assume as a pleased noise. “He’s a good boy, yes he is.”

“I’m sure he is, but he is a bear.”

“You don’t have to worry, he only fights the bad guys,” she was still talking in the voice one uses when talking to puppies or children, not full grown grizzly bears.

They talked about Trinket for a little longer but the conversation faded and Vax’s ever watchful gaze left Percy uncomfortable enough to fall back and strike up a conversation with the red headed woman, Keyleth. She seemed like the most cautious of the group, always considering the consequences to their actions and such. He’d talked briefly about the mission he’d joined them on, off to find some dangerous man named Jeremy.

She seemed almost hesitant, knowing that while he was a person who was hurting others and possibly very dangerous, she didn’t seem comfortable talking about taking his life. Even with the one small group of zombies they came along she was quiet after killing them quickly. Percy may not of exactly agreed with her, murdering this man may not have been his first choice but he wasn’t afraid to do it, but he enjoyed talking with Keyleth. He found her to be quite grounding. She also seemed very interested in some of his inventions and ideas, even offering to help if he wanted it.

Percy had also expected more undead, he thought they would be everywhere and the group would have to be silent to try and avoid them. Instead, they all laughed and joked loudly, surprisingly lighthearted considering the situation. They made their way toward the next town without incident.

“You think he’s in there?” Grog asked, turning the nailed weapon in his hands with a blood thirsty look in his eyes.

“Doubt it. Everything we heard said he’s in a cave nearby, only going in when he needs something,” Vax stood beside Grog and looked at the large walled town ahead of them. They were still far enough out to not be considered a threat, they may have eyes on them but there wasn’t likely to be a finger on the trigger. Not like it was with Vex where Percy was on the edge of taking the shot.

“Should we camp here then? Up in the trees maybe? It’s going to be hard and dangerous to try and find him in the dark like this,” Keyleth pointed out.

“Do we want him to be on the loose for another night?” Pike asked warily.

“He was last night and the night before. We can’t really do anything about it right now other than get a full night’s rest tonight a wake up early tomorrow. We should catch him early but ready for a fight rather than late and worn out.” Scanlan looked out of place next to Grog who was so much taller than him.

Scanlan, in his forties apparently, looked surprisingly young. Percy would never have guessed he was the old man he claimed to be, but then again his stark white hair made him look older than he was, so who was he to talk?

“It may not lead to a fight, we might be able to talk this out still. He might surrender.” Grog rolled his eyes when Keyleth said that but Vax’s eyes softened.

“Keyleth, he’s killed the last three people who tried to talk to him. If we don’t stop him, he’s just going to keep doing it.” Percy saw it immediately. Vax wanted to take her in his arms, wanted to hold her hands, all of that romantic shit. He also saw Keyleth might be the most oblivious person he’d ever met.

She agreed to camp for the night and with her nature based magic helped create a few basic baskets in the trees so people wouldn’t be falling out of them in the night. They started a low fire and sat around it while having dinner. Percy was on edge the entire time, convinced the zombies would be drawn to them any second now, but none came.

“They fear the fire, you know.” Vex sat beside him. They had arrived at the tail end of the sunset and now the two moons were high in the sky. The others had gone to bed, even Vax who had almost been acting as a barrier then entire day.

He looked over to her and nodded. He had hoped she wouldn’t take up the first watch with him, in fact he’d been subtly trying to keep his distance for the majority of the day. He didn’t enjoy the little control he seemed to have around her. He’d felt like this before, an infatuation, but it was dangerous now. Things were different now, he was different, and that made things…difficult. Even if he ignored the fear and the knowledge that Vex wouldn’t desire him in return, he still wasn’t good for her. He was actually quite awful for her. And he figured the best way to get rid of those feelings was to avoid her as best he could.

Vex didn’t like being ignored. Especially not by someone she’d gone out on a limb for like this. Which is why she had taken the watch with him, he couldn’t exactly avoid her when they were the only two awake.

“I didn’t know they feared anything,” Percy admitted quietly.

“Plenty of things. Of course they’re stupid so they’re not afraid of what they should be, but they usually don’t like the fire.”

“Quite understandable,” was all he said.

Vex huffed after a minute, frustrated with his lack of effort, and began fiddling with some of her arrows.

Percy felt terribly guilty after that and his usual strict control failed him, “Why the bow?”

She pretended to pout still, and she was doing exceedingly well at it, “It’s quiet.”

“You all care about being quiet?” He raised his eyebrows, surprise evident in his voice.

He pulled a smile from her lips with that, “Sometimes. When we fight it’s good. Especially with some of the things we do. I also don’t have to buy ammo. It’s why all of us, well, almost all of us now, have weapons that aren’t guns. I have a pistol too, I just don’t use it very often.”

“How effective are the arrows against the dead?” Percy shifted closer to her to look at the arrows better.

“Effective enough.”

“Could be better?”

“Anything could be better.” She sighed, as much as she enjoyed their crazy adventures it was dangerous work and they never seemed to have an edge.

“I could make them better.” Percy slowly reached over and took the arrow from Vex and turned it over in his hands.

“Oh yeah?” She tried to sound smug, like she didn’t believe him, but she leaned toward him with an eagerness that gave away what she really thought.

“Yes. I could make you some arrows the next time I have a workshop available to me. Something with a bit more oomf to it.” He handed the arrow back, already thinking about what to do.

“Oh I was so right to bring you along,” She shimmied her shoulders happily and threw an arm around his neck and kissed his cheek.

There was suddenly a lump in Percy’s throat but he smiled and nodded stiffly, “Yes, well if it helps you it might keep me alive a little longer.”

They talked for a while longer, much to Percy’s pleasure and dismay. He wasn’t even sure why’d he’d agreed to come along. Of course revenge, it rang clear in his mind, but he could have found other ways. Coming with this group specifically didn’t have a real answer, but he was grateful. Even with what was sure to be a slow and steady torture with Vex, who he could already tell he was powerless against. He could tell this was a good group to be with.

Vex went to sleep and dreamt of arrows. Percy dreamt of her being swallowed by dark, hungry shadows.

 

“All right,” Scanlan said as he stretched himself out in the early morning sun. He wiggled his fingers and winked at Pike who gave back an over exaggerated wink. “Now, let’s go find ourselves a really shitty wizard.”

“Do you mean you mean he’s like, a wizard who is bad at being a wizard or like, is he a bad person who is a wizard? Or does he smell like shit?” Grog asked.

“Yes,” Scanlan answered, laughing. Grog laughed too though Vex wondered if he’d really understood.

She went up to her brother who was finishing up a conversation with Keyleth and said, “I’m going to be getting some special arrows soon and then you won’t be our only secret weapon.”

Vax rolled his eyes, “Sure Stumpy, and where are you getting special arrows?”

“Apparently Percy is quite good with his hands.”

Vax groaned and made a face, “I don’t want to know your personal details.”

She smacked his arm, “Not like that! I mean he does a lot of tinkering. He made both his guns himself.”

“Great, can’t wait to find ammo for those.”

“Won’t need to, he makes it himself too. I’m telling you, he’s really good. And I’m getting new arrows,” she did a bragging dance until Pike spoke up.

“We should get going right? And take care of this guy?” Pike was wearing a light blue hoodie, she somehow remained relatively clean. Whatever she did to get the blood out of her clothes was impressive (Vex suspected magic).

They ate breakfast quickly and set out, searching for a cave like the one that had been described to them. They found it easily enough, hidden under a simple spell that Scanlan had sensed when they approached.

Percy proved his worth in the fight, not only did he handle himself well but when Vax was face down on the ground, passed out and bleeding heavily, and this Jeremy fellow was moving to make the killing blow on him, his fist raised to cast gods knew what spell, Percy shot and killed him. Vex had been unable to do anything to save her brother, but Percy was directly responsible for him to be still standing. Percy had even offered one of his healing potions, of course he wasn’t quick enough to say it and when he did Vex was already shoving one down is throat, but it was a nice gesture he didn’t have to do.

What happened after Vax woke up was the strange part.

Vex hugged her brother, told him not to be so stupid next time, and when he was standing on his feet she moved over to the body to start rifling through his pockets (the rest of the group made jokes as she did so and he assumed it was a regular thing. Percy found it quite smart, the more she found the less she had to buy.)

“Do you think if he lived in a very nice mansion instead of a dank cave that she would have gone to Vax first? Like if she saw something shiny, which would she choose?” Scanlan teased as they slowly followed her to the body.

“Guys,” she whispered, kneeling next to him but unmoving.

“What’s wrong? Is he empty? I hate it when they’re empty,” the short man continued lightly.

“He’s not the same. He’s not Jeremy. Fuck, I don’t think he’s even human,” Vex looked over her shoulder, fear shone in her eyes and her face was white as a sheet.

The jokes fell silent and all but Percy stopped moving. He strode towards her quicker and knelt beside her. A moment later he felt Vax behind him, looking over his shoulder.

The creature before them was definitely not Jeremy and Percy agreed that he didn’t look human. He was slender, too thin, and frail looking. Skin clung to his bones, bones that jutted out in strange, inhuman ways. His bulging eyes were green with black slits, red lines that looked like thick, huge veins stretched across the visible parts of his body. His fingers were unnaturally long, he was bald with a head too large for the rest of him, and what was wrong with his mouth? It was like there wasn’t one at all.

“There have always been rumors that things worse than zombies are coming back,” Vex whispered hoarsely, standing up and pulling away from the thing.

“They’ve always been stories though, nobody takes them seriously,” Vax answered.

“Nobody needs to believe them for them to be true,” Percy mused. He cocked his head to the side as he looked it over. “It still might have something of value on it. Or information at least.”

He could feel Vex’s indecision behind him. She wanted to know more and whatever he had on him, but she was still reeling from what just happened. Percy made the easy decision for her and began going through pockets and examining the clothes he wore.

There was some money and a few things of mild interest, a nice pair of shoes that looked enchanted and a hat that had fallen off when he crumpled to the ground.

“We should’ve known he was lying, what kind of name is Jeremy anyway?” Grog huffed

“You know who might have more information on this thing?” Keyleth asked, looking a little like she wanted to throw up. Honestly everyone but Percy and Grog were kind of feeling that way.

“Who?” Pike asked.

“Gilmore.”

“We’ve got to go back to Emon anyways, we finished the job. Did you find the book?” Vex asked as Vax appeared from the shadows, nobody having even noticed he left.

“Yep, found it in a little alcove over there. Along with a few other knick knacks but nothing of real importance.” He shrugged and handed the book to Grog who shoved it into a bag without even looking to rearrange things to make it fit. Percy was a little amazed at how effortless it was.

“Hope you’re ready to see Gilmore,” she winked and nudged him with her elbow, “we’re going to need your lovely charm to find out what this is and also because I want some things enchanted at a discount.”

Percy thought the stinginess was quite adorable. More than that though, he was excited to find out who Gilmore was and why everyone broke out into huge grins when he was mentioned. He also wanted to meet a man who knew everything, perhaps he’d have some information on things Percy was looking into as well.

“Have you ever been to Emon, Percy?” Vex asked as they walked away, leaving the strange creature to rot.

“No, I haven’t been much of anywhere really.” Not a full lie, not the full truth either.

“You’ll love it. We have quite a few friends there, it’s kind of our base of operations really. Have a nice house and everything. And wait until you meet Gilmore, the man makes everything worth it. I would find a way to cure the plague if he asked. He doesn’t ask, says it’s bad for business.”

They talked more on the way and the more she told him about Gilmore the more intrigued he became.

 

It was almost three days before they were standing at the gates of Emon and the sight nearly took Percy’s breath away.

The walls were huge, intimidating, and took minutes and tests to open. And when they did the city was bursting with life and movement and color, so much color. There wasn’t much to find outside, people found that dull colors worked best to hide them, and even if they weren’t looking to be hidden dye was more rare, the factories weren’t working on making so many colors anymore, they had other needs that needed to be met. But here, if there had been no wall Percy would have wondered if there were zombies at all. It looked just like how he imagined it did in the books from the time before this.

Emon. The new capital city since the fall. It had been chaos for a while until some people in Emon got things under control. They weren’t particularly involved in what was happening in the settlements but they had saved a lot of people from big issues over the years. It was that reason that kept people comfortable with the people in Emon being in charge.

The group walked up the path to the wall. There was a door in wall with three guards stationed outside and when Percy looked up he could see multiple guards patrolling the top of the wall.

“Ah, welcome back,” a terribly handsome man said with a kind smile as they strode up, “I see you’ve brought another back with you. Dangerous times to be doing that, isn’t it?”

“Jarret, it’s _so_ good to see you again, how are you?” Vex tousled her hair and gave him a wicked grin.

“Fine, fine, glad to see you’ve all come home safely again. But, as happy as I am, I must ask for us to look you over. Especially that one,” he nodded to the white haired man standing toward the back.

“Jarret, I would get naked for you if you just asked, you don’t have to claim it’s about protocol,” Scanlan teased.

He chuckled, “Yes, I’m sure you would.”

“In all fairness, Jarret, we don’t look dead. And it’s not even like a bite or a scratch will instantly turn you into one,” Keyleth said.

“Which is why we ask you to strip, so we can look you over and track the progress of any possible infection and, if we can, heal you or rid you of the disease.” Jarret was still smiling, and not a tense forced smile, it was genuine and he seemed actually happy to see them again. Percy found it strange, this kind of job would wear down on people, especially with this kind of conversation happening often. Instead he seemed to be thriving and having a good time with this small group of misfits.

They opened the door to a room with a guard in each corner. They all stripped down and set their weapons to the side Jarret and another guard looked them over. It wasn’t rushed but it wasn’t the intense check the Percy got. His cheeks grew hot as he realized his companions were dressed and waiting for him while he was still very exposed as the two guards inspected and questioned him.

Percy’s heart was pounding, terrified that they’d see something worse than infection in him, but eventually they said he was clear and told Percy to get dressed. He did so quickly, grabbed his guns, and followed Vax who led the group eagerly.

“Where are we going exactly?” Percy asked Keyleth as they walked.

“A friend of ours, Gilmore, owns a shop around here. He’s also very good with strange things.”

“So we’re going to ask him about the thing in the cave?”

“And hopefully he’ll have some answers.”

They walked through the city. He could see pieces of the past. There were still cars around, he found it amazing. The gas had been taken in the beginning, and even what was left wouldn’t have lasted this long. Most of them had been scrapped for pieces. They weren’t the way they were in the pictures, shiny and clean and useful. They’d been abandoned, relics of an older time. A lot of the insides had been gutted, most were missing wheels, but Percy was fascinated nonetheless. He’d never seen one in person, as a child his teachers had shown him pictures and told him about them, but this was something new.

“Do you like them? The cars I mean? They don’t work, but I think they’re nice to look at. The world was so different before,” Keyleth said as she walked beside him.

“Could you imagine using one of these to travel everywhere?” They passed the car, there wasn’t another one he could see on the street.

“Seems a little inconvenient. I mean, I can travel by tree, so I think having to use something like that would just be a waste, don’t you think?”

“But in a time where this was the best way to get around? What a strange place it must have been without magic.”

“Must have been nicer without zombies and shapechangers all over the place, though.”

“Yeah, that would have been nice.”

 

“Vex’ahlia, my dear!”  Gilmore had passed over Vax and gone through the rest of the group, which Percy found strange considering how Vax almost seemed excited to come here.

He hugged Vex tightly and she giggled and hugged him back, “Oh hello, darling.”

He let go of her and looked at Percy, “And who are you?” The dark man had a broad grin, long black hair, and was exceedingly good looking.

“Percival—”

“You can call him Percy,” Vex said after hearing Percy take a deep breath to say his whole name.

“Percy, delighted to meet you.” He shook Percy’s hand and then turned to Vax once again who was smiling widely.

“Vax’ildan,” Gilmore swept back over to him and put a hand on each cheek, “it’s been far too long.” He kissed him on both cheeks and hugged him.

“I’m sorry it’s been so long, Gilmore. We would have come earlier, but we’ve been a little…preoccupied. In fact, something about our last little job stuck out to us and we were hoping you would have some answers.”

Gilmore looked a little surprised but nodded, “Of course, whatever I can do to help.”

Vax explained everything about what happened in the cave and Gilmore listened patiently until the end. Then he nodded slowly, deep in thought.

“Do you know what it could be, Gilmore? I know you have always had your ear to the ground on the strange stories that come through here. And you’ve done some of your own research, I’m sure,” Vax seemed to take the lead for the group with Gilmore.

“Well, it sounds like you defeated a doppleganger.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, sorry for the wait and that it's kind of slow (I swear it will pick up and get better) (I mean, I think it will) and not at all edited. I'm in a weird place, getting ready to graduate in a couple weeks, for the last month I've been planning and setting up and doing a bunch of stuff to make the school's first gay pride event (a week of events technically) a success (it ended on Thursday and it was amazing and perfect except a few very close minded people causing a couple small problems which were handled very well), started my last class which is literally me working in a formal dining restaurant which is causing me some stress cause it's who I am as a person and it's my last class, and my mom's wedding is in like a month or so, I've got like puppy dog crushes on some people, and uh basically the point is a lot is happening and it's affected me a bit. If it helps, I wrote this before I even opened the document for the last book in my published trilogy which isn't done yet and I really need to finish so I can start working on my next project to get published. But yeah, I figured this was fun and light so I chose this instead. Not that you asked, but I thought I'd explain anyways. Thanks for reading and stuff, hope you're enjoying it


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, was graduating and dealing with boy and girl problems (well, not problems for the most part is was just my anxiety and also I haven't been involved a girl in like four years and I've never done anything with a cis dude, let alone being any kind of involved at the same time, so like there was a lot of shit going on in my life and zombies wasn't exactly what I was thinking about. More porn. Which was why I was posting more porn.) But here we go! After this things will hopefully be picking up! Also I am going to start another AU, so like...splitting the time writing between this and that and also like, my professional writing for the last book in my trilogy that I'm just avoiding desperately.  
> But anyways, onto the good stuff.  
> Introducing all three of our baddies in one chapter. And also avoiding all manner of emotions.

“I’m sorry, a what now?” Scanlan asked after a long silence.

“A doppleganger. They can change shape, take the forms of others, really quite troublesome things from what I hear. They’ve been around for a while now, pretty rare though, or much better at hiding than we thought which is very possible. I don’t know what you’re asking specifically though, you’ve already killed it.” A slight frown formed on Gilmore’s lips.

“I think we were just trying to make sure we weren’t crazy. That this thing was real.”

“Well I had my doubts about it before, but if I was to believe anyone about these things, it would be you.”

“What else is out there? Like, what should we be keeping an eye out for other than the usual?” Grog asked.

Gilmore chuckled, “What isn’t out there?” He sighed and became a little more serious, “The truth is I can’t tell what is just story and rumor and what the truth is. Not many people venture out there, and they usually aren’t as trustworthy as you lot.”

“If we’re the honest ones that’s a little scary,” Keyleth laughed nervously.

“Yes, well the kinds of people that do what you do are a little scary.”

They spoke for a little longer until Vax asked if Gilmore wanted to take a walk with him. Gilmore seemed eager to accept. As they walked away Scanlan sidled up to Vex and started going on about needing money for a thing and how beautiful she was and so on. She caught blue eyes watching her before they shifted away, pretending like they hadn’t been.

She pressed some money into Scanlan’s hand and told him that was all he would get, then hooked her arm through Keyleth’s and asked if she wanted to go look at fancy clothes with her. Keyleth excitedly agreed. Vex looked over her shoulder to Percy, who was standing alone. Grog and Pike had followed after Scanlan to what was likely a brothel.

“Would you like to come along? You look like you enjoy nice clothes,” Vex asked, looking him over.

“It’s not often you get to have nice things in these times,” he admitted.

“Well we’re about to come into a large sum of money in the morning and I promised to get Kiki something nice.”

The next three days were spent in the city of Emon in an old hotel that this group, Vox Machina, owned and used as their home base. They called it Greyskull.

Percy took a room in the basement. The others had tried to convince him to stay on the second floor with them, saying he didn’t need to be so far away, but Percy liked his space. He also liked having a place to work until the early morning hours without waking anyone else.

On the third day Percy called Vex down to his workshop and handed her three arrows.”

“They’re beautiful,” Vex turned one over in her hands, examining it closely. There were so many little details, it was obvious how much work he had put in it. “Thank you.

“They do more than just look pretty. They explode.”

Vex’s eyes lit up, “No way.”

Percy grinned and nodded, “They do. On impact they explode. I have ideas on other kinds of arrows for you, but they’ll take some more time. I figured if you were determined to stay with the old fashioned bow and arrow that I would give you a little more oomf.”

They talked for a little longer and eventually Vex went back upstairs to her room. She set the arrows carefully with the rest of her ‘adventuring gear’ and sat on her bed.

Vex felt the beginnings of a slightly familiar emotion. It wasn’t exactly the way she knew it, it wasn’t simply coy and fun and exciting, there was a hint of something else. She wasn’t sure she liked this softer feeling to it. All because he gave her something pretty for no other reason than because he wanted to. He expected nothing, he just gave.

Luckily she had a good idea on how to handle the unfamiliar part of a familiar feeling.

She was getting hammered tonight.

 

Vox Machina visited the nearest pub that night. Keyleth was halfway through one drink when she started getting tipsy. Pike and Grog were deep into a drinking contest, Pike not even blinking as she downed drinks. Percy was sitting with Keyleth, laughing and drinking with her. Vex and Vax were sitting at the bar, the two twins dressed in dark colors with long dark hair, one of them with a naturally brooding expression (resting brood face) and the other with a grin and lost eyes.

Scanlan never missed that look, he could tell when one of his family members was too deep in their heads, and he didn’t like it. Not one bit. And sometimes the best thing he could do was to go back to his roots.

He hopped up on the bar and began to sing.

In less than ten seconds the smile actually reached Vex’s eyes.

In less than thirty he offended a group of large men.

In thirty-five they had hands almost as large as his face grabbing on to him.

In thirty-seven he made a very awful joke about their large hands on him and dug his grave a little deeper.

In forty-five he was outside on his ass.

But Vex was still smiling and it made it very worthwhile.

What happened next made it a little harder to believe that.

 

“Wait, start from the beginning, what happened?” Keyleth waved her hands in front of her face, not understanding a word of what Scanlan just said.

He sighed and gave an over the top eye roll. “So those guys threw me outside and I was sitting on the curb and took my hat off and used it as a tip jar while I played my flute—”

“Did you make anything?” Grog interrupted.

“A little bit. Someone also gave me a little card about Sarenrae and being saved or something. Here, I can probably—”

“Scanlan, later. What happened?” Vax’s voice was strained and it was obvious how hard he was trying to keep his cool.

“Right, right. So I’m just sitting there, playing my flute, and then I look up and there’s this thing in the sky. It was red and huge and looking at us here and I swear to all the gods it looked just like a dragon.”

“A dragon.” Vax looked at Vex and shook his head slightly.

Pike reached out and touched his shoulder, “Scanlan…I know the world is pretty strange and we just saw that doppleganger and all that, but dragons aren’t real. I mean, technically dopplegangers could have always been around. They can hide. But dragons, you can’t hide dragons for even the last hundred years let alone before the zombies.”

“You guys don’t believe me.” Scanlan worked the muscles in his jaw as he looked around at them, every single one avoiding his gaze.

“I believe you saw something that you thought looked like a dragon,” Vax answered carefully.

“Someone else must have seen it, I can’t be the only one in Emon who was looking up at that time. The damn thing fucking blew fire.”

Percy cleared his throat and everyone looked to him, he noticed the shock in most of their eyes, like they’d forgotten he did more than just sit and watch. “How about tomorrow we go and ask around. There’s no harm in going to some bars, wandering around the market, that sort of thing. If there was something there people will be eager to talk about it. There’s no harm in keeping an ear out, is there?” Percy had seen enough not to rule out the possibility of dragons, no matter how unlikely.

Everyone mumbled agreements after that, not wanting to come out and say there was no point, it was a waste of time. The more Percy looked at them the more he could see it wasn’t disbelief or irritation that stopped them, it was downright fear. A dragon? As if times weren’t shitty enough. Percy probably would have done the same if he had as much experience out there as they did.

 

He met Scanlan in the kitchen the next morning. That night they had talked about not everyone going, that it would only draw attention and make people nervous to talk about it. He’d been expecting it to be just the two of them, instead he saw the twins at the kitchen table too.

“Good morning,” he said curiously as he tugged on his boots.

“Morning,” Vex sounded dangerously serious and Percy found himself distracted by the way she restrung her bow.

Vax nodded his greeting but Percy could tell he didn’t want to be there at all. “I thought it was just Scanlan and I this morning.”

“Didn’t want you two getting into trouble so I thought I’d come along,” Vex grinned over at him.

“And I didn’t want her getting into trouble so I thought I’d come along,” Vax added.

“I told you that you didn’t have to come,” Vex huffed out. This had obviously been an earlier, tense conversation.

“And I told you they had it covered, but you insisted.”

Scanlan rolled his eyes but didn’t comment on the fact neither of them needed to come along. “Let’s just go, alright? Someone else had to have seen this thing.”

As it turned out, someone did. A few people did. Stories varied but one thing was the same. A huge, red, winged beast flew over the city and there was fire in the sky.

“We have to tell Uriel. If this thing comes back they need to have some kind of defense ready for it,” Vex said as they walked away from their sixth retelling of the story.

“I agree but let’s tell the rest of our people first. The second we tell Uriel is the second we volunteer to handle it and we can’t just make that decision,” Vax cautioned.

Vex looked like she wanted to disagree, that she wanted to run there right now, but Percy interjected, “We can meet up with everyone somewhere close to this Uriel and that way if we decide to handle it we can go straight there and if not we can tip off some guards, basically leave anonymous tips and hope they listen.”

Vex nodded stiffly, “Fine. Call everyone here, let’s decide quickly because the longer we wait the less time everyone has.”

Vax touched the gold earring on his ear and told everyone the bare minimum but made sure they knew how important it was to come quickly.

“So you’re saying it’s real?” Keyleth looked shell shocked.

“Yeah.” Vax didn’t have much else to say.

They were sitting in a dimly lit pub, which felt about right for this conversation.

“So what? We just, we go after it ourselves or we pretend we have no idea what to do and hope the city doesn’t burn around us?” Keyleth put her head in her hands.

“Others know what they saw in the sky and they’re not chasing after it. Nothing says we have to try and kill it ourselves,” Vax said calmly.

“We kill lots of things, I say we kill this one too.” Grog took a huge bite out of some sort of meat they served him.

“We can’t just leave them to die, most of those people barely know how to hold a gun. We have more experience than almost anyone else here outside the city and killing zombies and all that. We’re different than they are,” Keyleth pressed, fear still radiating from her but it was obvious that she needed to do the right thing.

“Vax…” Vex’s voice was soft and she looked at her brother with eyes that told a story Percy couldn’t read.

Vax looked down at his feet, “I know,” was all he said. Percy took it as an agreement to rush after the thing.

“If anyone can do something about it, it’s us,” Pike smiled sadly and touched a pendant that hung around her neck.

“I always wanted to slay a dragon. The stories always make it sound so exciting,” Percy smirked and looked around at the table. That was easier than he thought it would be.

“So what, we just wander the wilds and hope we find a dragon and then hope we are strong enough to beat it? I’m not saying we don’t go after it, I’m just saying that so far it sounds like everyone wants to just chase it down. That’s not a plan.” Percy never imagined Scanlan to be the voice of reason.

Vex spoke up again, “We need to talk to Uriel. He might have information. If not on the…beast itself, he might be able to tell us something that can help. If not, we don’t really have much choice than going after it like that.”

“Who exactly is Uriel?”

Vax was the one who answered, pulling himself from his brooding thoughts, “He basically runs the country, what’s still around. Seems like it gets smaller every day, more settlements lost, but he keeps things running as best as he can. Put together a council and all that to help him, but in the end he’s the man at the top. And we may or may not have a very good relationship with him.”

“Saved his life,” Keyleth pointed out.

“Saved all of Emon, technically,” Scanlan did that thing where he rubbed his fingernails against his shoulder like he was cleaning them but was really not so subtly showing off like it was no big deal.

“A story you’ll have to tell me some time,” Percy said.

“It has zombies,” Keyleth said and looped her arm through his as they began heading towards the door.

“I never would have guessed,” he lay his hand on top of hers and gave her a real smile.

 

Vex walked behind Percy and Keyleth, watching them curiously as they walked. At first she wondered if perhaps he liked her, or if she was interested in him instead of her brother, which would have been upsetting. Purely because Vax was so in love with her of course. Percy was nothing special. Kind of weird looking with that white hair and the glasses and when he was stripped down in front of her he had all those scars on his arm, like electricity from his fingertips to his shoulder. And the carpet did indeed match the drapes. Not that she was looking.

The longer she watched however the more obvious it became that they just enjoyed each other’s company with no ulterior motives. Something that set her mind and heart at ease. Because of her brother of course.

As they closed in on the capital building which had been around since before the fall, though it was quite different now. It was weathered, the top was no longer golden, cracks and breaks in the walls, weapons now attached to the roof and sticking out of windows and the like. Guards patrolled outside and on top of the building. Two of them met with Vox Machina at the base of the stairs.

“Names,” one demanded.

“Vox Machina, we’re here to see Uriel.” Scanlan had been voted once again to handle the people, being as persuasive as he was.

“He’s busy.” The second guard snapped.

“He’s never too busy for us, we’re heroes after all.” Despite being behind him, Vex knew he had that charming grin and the sparkle in his eyes that made people just agree to whatever he said.

The guards looked at each other and nodded, “Fine. You can come inside, but you must wait outside his office while we inform him of your presence and let him decide if he will see you.”

“Of course, of course. Let’s not waste any time though,” She could hear the wink in his voice.

They huffed and rolled their eyes and turned around, leading the group up the steps and into the building. Percy held the door open for everyone (except for Trinket who was no allowed inside much to Vex’s disapproval) and took up the rear. As they walked through the building a hand suddenly grabbed the back of her leather jacket and she was yanked into an alcove.

She spun around, her hand already reaching for the dagger she kept on her hip at all times for moments like this, and grabbed the shirt collar of the one who took her.

Instead of seeing a threat she saw Percy. His face paler than she’d ever seen before, his eyes wide, he was bent over, clutching his chest and panting, his entire body shaking. She reached for him, blade forgotten, and grabbed his shoulders.

“Percy?” She asked, keeping her voice quiet. There was a reason he didn’t call out to the others and she wanted to respect it.

“You have to go. Now.” He whispered earnestly.

“What do you mean? We can’t just—”

“You don’t understand,” his voice was rough and when his eyes met hers she almost flinched. They were angry, violent, she thought she saw shadows moving in them. And under the pure wrath there was so much fear it was palpable. “There are people here who will kill you without blinking an eye.”

“Darling, we met four of those people last night in a bar. We handle zombies for a living. We kill shapeshifters. We’re talking about hunting a dragon. Whatever it is—”

“Compared to these people, a dragon feels like a walk in the park. You need to go. You need to leave town.”

Vex yanked her hands from him like he burned her, “Leave? Just run away? Why? Because you saw someone who scared you? I thought you were better than that, I wanted you with us because I thought you were good, that you were brave, that you would _care._ ”

Percy stood at his full height, looking down at her, without a trace of the fear that had been almost overwhelming before, “I am not good, Vex’ahlia. I am quite wrong. And a coward. But I am not running because I do not care about these people. I care very much about them. About you. And it is that very reason why I’m begging you to leave. To get as far from here and as far from me as your feet can carry you. All of you need to go.”

“Percy, what the fuck are you talking about?” She hissed.

“Vex?” A voice called out. Vax was looking for her now.

“Two people just left your precious Uriel’s room. The two people who killed my family. Who kept me prisoner. Who _tortured_ me. They are the most dangerous people I have ever met and when I say that you need to be very far from me it is because I am going to be getting very close to them and it is not safe for any of you.” Percy could hear it echoing in his mind. A call. Vengeance.

Vex’s face fell, the anger and disbelief gone, “Percy, you don’t need to be alone. I mean, you can talk to us. We might be able to help. We—”

“Vex, what the hell—oh. Percy.” Vax stood behind them, arms crossed over his chest as he looked at them. “Now might not be the best time to sneak off like this.”

Vex chewed her lip and looked at Percy who shook his head ever so slightly, pleading with his eyes. The shadows had died down in them but still flickered. “That’s none of your business,” she said as she brushed past them both, “Percy and I just wanted a moment alone.”

Percy turned to follow and found Vax’s eyes locked on his. Vex left them both behind and Vax said, “You’re new and I don’t want to judge you prematurely, but I’m going to be honest. I don’t trust you.”

“Good. You shouldn’t.”

“And saying shit like that doesn’t help.”

“It’s not supposed to, it’s supposed to be a warning.”

Vax was tense, staring up at Percy, trying to read him but unable to pick up on anything. “I’m not my sister’s keeper. What she does is her business. But if you ever are the cause of harm to her, I’ll cut you down without a second thought.”

“I’d expect nothing less. You all go on. I’m a newcomer in this place and with information like this it might be best if I’m not involved right away.” In truth Percy just wanted to remain hidden a little longer.

Vax, unaware of Percy’s true feelings, left him in the alcove.

 

Uriel was strange. He spoke of the couple ruling over a nearby city, one that was largely independent from Uriel, of a new trade agreement with them. When they talked of dragons he seemed to shrug it off.

And then he said something that sent chills down Vex’s spine.

“The Briarwoods told me not to worry. It’s all under control.”

Percy may not have given her a name or details, but there was no doubt in her mind that the Briarwoods were the ones who he was after.

And Uriel all but said the Briarwoods were responsible for the dragon.


	4. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long on this! It's not as popular so it got bumped to lower priority while I finished up the other tiny project.  
> Rated Teen for now but it might get bumped to Explicit later down the road (not soon, it would be a while), I'm not sure, I'm still trying to get the hang of smut writing which is why I got into fanfic to begin with, so I might try it here, but as of right now I don't have any specific plans for it?  
> Anyways, I'm sure I've bored you with all this talking and you want to see them fuck up some zombies.

“My name is Scanlan fucking Shorthalt and I’m going to kick your ass if you don’t tell me!”

Keyleth leaned over to Percy and whispered, “Modesty isn’t exactly his strong suit, is it?”

He chuckled and replied, “To be fair, neither is kicking people’s asses.”

She nodded and shrugged, “That’s a fair point.”

It had been a little over a month since the dragon sighting. Stories were piping up all over the country now, it was more than a drunken story now though. It was widely understood that a dragon now watched over the country, burning small settlements, stealing livestock. Nobody knew where its lair was, and so far the band of mercs, for lack of a better term, Vox Machina had only found one person who hinted any knowledge of who controlled it. But Uriel couldn’t answer any of their questions and threatened to have them thrown from the city and hunted by his guards if they kept insinuating the Briarwoods were trouble.

Percy hadn’t gone into the details of the Briarwoods, but he had managed to get everyone to realize that they were an issue that needed to be taken care of. And after weeks of searching for information it led to this. In a trading town with a very popular bar, Scanlan standing on a table, a fistful of someone’s shirt while he demanded information, not being very intimidating at all. The giant of a man behind him, however, was enough to make the poor man almost piss himself.

“All right, all right!” He held his hands up and Scanlan let him go. “Look, I don’t know exactly where this stuff is, but there’s stuff! Powerful stuff. Weapons and shit. It’s all old, you’re not gonna find a gun or anything, but it’s powerful. It’s from when magic was here _before_ the undead.”

“There wasn’t magic back then,” Vax stood behind the man, twirling his daggers.

Vex believed they were lucky they’d forced the man to close his bar for an hour, this wouldn’t look good in front of everyone. But gods above they needed a lead and if this was what it took then this is what it took.

“There was, there was. But it was lost. And when people started coming back, so did the magic.”

Vex, turning an arrow over in her hands, “Whatever, we’re not looking for old shit. We’re looking for the dragon and we’re looking for a way into the city of Whitestone.”

“I can’t fucking help you with that, but if you think you can kill a dragon without some help you’re bigger fuckin’ loons than I thought.” He spat on the ground.

“What kind of items are they? And what information about their location do you have?” Percy asked.

He looked to Percy and his mouth twitched, “You swear to get the hell out of my place and never come back and I’ll tell you.” And then he looked at Grog. “And that you’ll leave me unharmed.”

“Unharmed and your bar in perfect condition. Now, tell us what you know.” Percy walked up to him, his hands behind his back and his chin held high. Vax thought he looked extremely pompous. He was right.

“I don’t know exactly what it is, just that it belonged to some guy who died a real long time ago. Someone who didn’t have the money to pay for a room gave me this book, it was super vague, but apparently this guy was some Champion of some deity or something. And it’s in a mountain. But the mountains don’t go by the same name anymore, couldn’t figure out where it was so I gave up. But maybe one of you can.”

Percy nodded. “Bring me the book and we’ll be on our way.”

The man practically leapt from his chair and scurried off to a side room. “This isn’t exactly what we came for,” Keyleth said.

“No, but he’s right. We can’t defeat them the way we are. We need an edge. This might be it.” Percy ran a hand through his white hair.

Vax looked to his sister who nodded slightly. She wasn’t going to turn down anything that might help, even if they had only been fighting undead.

The man returned and held the book open to show Percy the pages he talked about. Vex peered over his shoulder and couldn’t make much sense of it, it was like it was written in code and the things she could understand weren’t enough to go on.

Percy, on the other hand, leaned forward eagerly. “Wonderful. We’ll take it, thank you very much,” he said when he pulled away.

The man took a few pages between his fingers and when Percy understood his intention he put his hand over the other man’s. “I said the book. If you rip those pages out of this book I’m afraid I’ll have to side with Grog on whatever we do with you instead.”

The man suddenly looked quite nervous. “I can’t, I really can’t give you the whole book.”

“And why not?” Pike asked, her voice light and kind but Percy saw her daring him to give a worthy answer.

“I promised someone else the book. The fact that I’m even taking these pages, if she finds out she’ll be more angry than I’m willing to risk.”

“If you don’t give my friend the book I’m going to get pretty angry too,” Grog growled.

Vex pursed her lips, “Who did you promise the book to?”

“Some woman who was actually looking for this stuff. This book is full of myths and shit. She’s the one who believes that there’s real stuff in here. She’s offering a lot of money for it and I already said yes. She’s not the type I want to double cross.” Percy recognized the fear in his eyes.

“What did she look like? And why didn’t she take it from you the first time?” He asked.

“She wanted to make sure the book was right. She took some of the pages, see?” He showed Percy the book, and sure enough next to Deathwalker’s Ward there was jagged evidence of ripped out pages. “She left to find what she took. She said when she came back with the fucking cape or cloak or whatever that she would pay me for the book. The only reason I could give you these pages was I thought maybe she wouldn’t notice. Come on you guys.”

Percy plucked the book from the man’s hand and flipped through it. “You didn’t say what she looked like,” he observed.

The man shivered, “Not good. Not right.”

Vax’s voice was smooth when he said, “Not enough information, friend.”

“She had one mechanical hand. And—”

Percy’s blood ran cold and he stopped listening. “That’s enough,” he said and snapped the book closed. “You’ll want to leave after us, that woman will kill you for this if she finds you before we find her.”

“What?” The owner’s voice trembled, “Just give me back the book and this won’t be an issue!”

“I’m afraid I can’t. The idea that she might have one of these…legends is horrifying enough. She can’t get her hands on any others. Even if they aren’t what she thinks they are.”

“I’m not leaving this fucking bar, give me back the book.” The man’s hand went to the waistband of his pants. They hadn’t taken his gun, they didn’t think they’d need to.

“You really don’t want to do that,” Scanlan whispered and jerked his thumb over to Grog who was gripping his club and a wicked grin beginning to cross his face.

“Why don’t you just tell her that someone stole the book?” Pike asked, always looking for a peaceful way out.

Percy hated being the one to tell her. “Anna Ripley won’t be content with that answer. Even if she believed he had nothing to do with it, she’d kill him out of pure anger. And that would be her being kind, which she rarely is.” He turned his attention to the owner again, “If you run fast enough she might not find you.” Percy really was trying to save this man’s life.

“Percy,” Vax hissed, “what are you talking about?”

“She works for the Briarwoods. She’s…quite possibly the worst person on this planet, or on any other for that matter. And I can’t in good conscience let her have this book and the things inside of it.” Percy slipped his bag from his shoulders and dropped the book inside of it. “Run very far from here, don’t tell anyone where you’re going, and you might live.”

The man pulled the gun out and held it at his side, his hand shaking, and he hissed, “Why you—”

Grog cleared his throat, “If you want to die here I can arrange that.”

“Let’s go,” Scanlan said, grabbing Grog’s forearm, “he probably wants some privacy to pack and all that. We should go. Thanks so much for the weird book and shit! Glad I didn’t have to kick your ass! Have a safe trip!” Scanlan pulled Grog along behind him. Pike hesitated but followed along, Keyleth after her, Vax motioned to Vex to leave with him but she hung back a moment longer. Vax left, looking behind him at his sister who shooed him on.

Vex reached out and hesitantly touched Percy’s back, “Scanlan’s right, we should go.” She felt how tense he was and when his eyes shifted to hers she thought she saw a shadow pass through them.

“Yes, of course.” He cleared his throat and took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment, and walked out the door, Vex a footstep behind him, and the man dropping to a chair as he contemplated his new life.

Percy knew that the mountains referenced in the book had been renamed after a large war when the land shifted hands. And after some research and just general running into caves and hoping it’s the right one, they found it.

And the sheer amount of undead in there was unsettling, not that they made anyone feel comfortable in any capacity, but there was something wrong about this amount. It had been overrun. Vex wasn’t even sure how they got up here, they were alive and had a very difficult time, these things didn’t have fine motor function.

And now, here they were.

 

“Fuckfuckfuckfuck!” Scanlan jumped and hit the ground hard, but the zombie that followed him didn’t sink its teeth into his flesh so he considered it a win.

“Stay down!” Vex shouted and with expert aim buried an arrow through the creature’s eye.

As it began to fall forward Scanlan yelped again and rolled to the side. Right into Vax’s leg.

“Hey there, buddy, care to move out of my way?” Vax’s voice was strained as he pushed back with his daggers against his own zombie, this one with the flesh on the right side of its face scraped away and showing teeth and bone. Those less experienced would have retched at the sight. Scanlan sometimes still did.

Scanlan scrabbled between Vax’s wide stance and then through the not as wide but less coordinated stance of the zombie and knocked its feet out from under it, taking it to the ground for Vax to finish it off while he tried to find a less horrible place to stand.

Pike had three closing in on her, Scanlan, his heart in his throat (along with some vomit), began racing towards her. But she closed her eyes, gripped Sarenrae’s symbol, and when she opened her eyes the glared white and a burst of energy and light surrounded her and when it faded they were gone.

“You’ll have to show me that trick sometime, Pike!” Keyleth shouted from a distance and slammed her staff into the ground, flames engulfing two next to Percy who was hitting his pistol with the palm of his hand.

“Shit!” Percy holstered the gun, obviously broken beyond what he could fix in battle (oh the downsides of modifying weapons yourself). He pulled his rifle from his back, grateful for the space granted to him by Keyleth’s spell, and took aim at one of the ones surrounding Grog.

Grog was just swinging. And laughing. Laughing and swinging. At one point he spun in a complete circle, hitting everything in arms reach. There were four zombies still on him, another one coming closer, and Grog seemed unfazed.

Vax, who had been kneeling over his zombie while he finished the job, looked up to see Grog becoming surrounded. And then he looked to his right to see a zombie coming in behind his sister who was focused on how to best help Grog. He threw two daggers at the one creeping closer to Vex, one in the chest and the other finding purchase in its forehead before blinking back to his belt. As the thing fell back Vex looked to her brother and nodded her thanks. He nodded back and rushed to Grog’s side.

Scanlan was almost to Pike’s side who was focused on healing Percy from a few wounds inflicted upon him earlier. The man was like jello, Scanlan thought, you looked at him and he started to bleed. Bruised like a peach. He held his wand out to the left of where Grog was and released four charges from his wand, and four explosions took out three zombies and broke a hole in the ground.

One would assume that the explosions and the hole would be obvious.

Vax, who had been trying to flank Grog and surprise the zombies on the left at the same time that the ground exploded (which wasn’t unusual, Vex had used some of those fancy arrows Percy liked to make and Scanlan was not a novice with that wand. Even Keyleth had plenty of huge firey spells. He was not unused to explosions. He just wasn’t used to giant holes in the ground afterwards) miscalculated his footsteps and found himself tumbling through the darkness.

“Vax!” Vex cried out and started running toward the hole, forgetting her soft and squishy self and how she, much like Percy, was not built for close quarters combat, especially armed only with a bow and arrow.

 _Bang!_ The one nearest to her dropped to the ground, the top half of its head just gone. Percy reloaded and took aim at the other one moving towards her.

Vax had the air knocked out of him as he slammed into the ground on the floor below. There was nothing but dust and silence, no zombies, no furniture, it was a forgotten chamber but it was safe. For now.

Above him he saw the silhouette of a head with a long braid over one shoulder peer down through the hole. “Vax!” He watched the dark shape of his sister shift and he could tell she was about to jump down with him.

“Don’t,” he coughed out, “don’t come down here. I’m fine,” he dropped his head against the stone floor, “I’m fine.”

“Vex!” Keyleth’s voice came from outside the hole, “Watch out!”

_Bang!_

Her head whipped around, then back down to look at him, “Are you sure?” She called down.

“Go, go stop these fuckers. I’m just going to take a breather.”

And she disappeared over the edge again and Vax listened to the noise of battle while he let his back rest. He wasn’t even positive he could move, all he knew was that it _hurt_.

“Got any more of that religious super power, Pike?” Scanlan asked as his lightening sparked through two more.

Grog was in a crazed rage, swinging at anything gray that moved, sometimes at ones that were no longer moving. And while he showed no signs of slowing Pike agreed, there were too many of them to go on for much longer. By this point even Grog was bleeding heavily in places.

Pike looked to Keyleth, “Block off that door over there when I’m done!” She pointed to the door opposite of the one they came through where most of them were coming through, and she grabbed the pendant around her neck. She took two deep breaths and the sounds around her faded, much like going underwater. Percy’s gunshots were dull thuds in the distance, Vex’s quips were murmurs from above, Scanlan’s song was a quiet but strengthening hum in the back of her mind. And she prayed silently, asking Sarenrae to take care of those who would be sent back to her side now. She asked that their sins in the afterlife be forgiven, they were not at fault for their current actions. And then she asked for the goddess’s strength to help her protect her friends.

And larger than ever before a light came from Pike and most of the undead turned to dust, and those that didn’t fell to the ground, unmoving.

A stone wall slammed the door closed and in the other small entrances into the room there was stillness. If there were more zombies, which Pike could sense there was, they were not risking coming near that white light.

There was a large, stone box on the far end of the room, up on a platform. It was rather plain but it had energy, anyone would be able to sense its importance though nobody was able to explain it.

It made Percy giddy and he forced himself to walk there slowly.

Grog began looting, Keyleth and Pike began checking the other entrances, looking for ways to barricade them at least temporarily, and Scanlan and Vex rushed over to the hole.

“Do you need help out of there?” Vex asked.

Vax groaned, the pain had not gone away and at one point he thought he blacked out. “If you want to toss down a potion I wouldn’t say no,” he said.

Vex then noticed Percy and she chewed her bottom lip. Grog could loot the bodies, what she wanted was the big score and it was in that box.

“You go, I’ll take care of him,” Scanlan said, following her gaze.

“Thank you,” she said quietly and dug into her pouch that hung off her belt and tossed a red, viscous potion down to her brother, positive that his quick reflexes would catch it with ease. And then she rushed off after Percy.

They reached the coffin together and Percy immediately put his hands on the lid. He looked at Vex, a wicked grin crossing his lips, and Vex grinned back, just as excited. Though she tempered it with the caution Vax had often pressed onto her (though rarely himself) and said, “Oh, wait, let me check for traps.”

She got to the word ‘check’ before Percy started pushing. It slammed into the ground when she said the word ‘for’. The word ‘traps’ came out in a gasp, slightly like the sound Vax made when he hit the ground. More like the last breath of someone before they crossed into the other world.

Percy made a similar sound at the same time as he was thrown ten feet back with Vex and his body wracked with intense pain. A magical enchantment of course, how could he have been so stupid? He was lucky Pike had healed him earlier and he wasn’t too injured, it could have been quite a different story. The magic ached in his bones as he sat up and he suspected it was death magic.

He looked over to Vex who lay a few feet from him, likely still recovering from the impact, and he crawled over to her, ignoring the sharp pains as he did so. “Vex?” He said, laughing slightly.

She didn’t answer.

And Percy’s blood ran cold.

He grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Vex.” Nothing. “Vex’ahlia!” He shook her harder and still, she was silent, limp in his hands.

The others had noticed and were coming over to him now, cradling Vex close to him and tears beginning to run down his dirt stained cheeks.

Vax pulled himself over the edge of the hole and wiped his hands on his pants. “What’s going on? Is it good?” He walked up, shouldering past Grog to see Percy sitting on the ground with his sister in his arms. “Vex?” Once again all the air was knocked out of his lungs, though for a very different reason this time.

“I’m sorry,” Percy whispered.


End file.
